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CHAPTER 11
CONSTRUCTIVIST AND NARRATIVE APPROACHES TO
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
Constructivism
• Psychological approach that has developed out of a philosophical position, postmodernism,
which believes that individuals construct or perceive their own reality or truth, and that
there is no fixed truth.
Social Constructionism-
Somewhat different than constructivism. Focuses on how interactions with others affects
peoples’ view of the world and the actions that they take as a result of their views. Social
Postmodernism
• Reaction to modernism, which takes a rationalist approach that emphasizes scientific proof
and is a reflection of advances in technology and science.
• Reflects a multiculturally diverse world in which different individuals can have their own
construct or view of what is real for them.
NARRATIVE COUNSELING
Clients narrate or tell about their past career development, present career development, and
construct their future career.
Active approach that attends to how clients intentionally interact with the world and learn
Savickas (2011b) views the client first as an actor performing roles, then as an agent regulating
her own behavior, and then as an actor who performs roles in a different setting:
Savickas sees constructivist approaches to career counseling as life designing, which has 4 phases
that help the counselor construct the individual’s story:
1. Construct- Uses small stories (micronarratives) to help clients organize their views of
themselves
Storytelling
Client’s narration has a beginning (difficult or troubling situation), middle (obstacles
and instruments that may be used in working toward reaching a personal goal), and end
(counselor and client work together to develop solutions that will provide satisfaction
and to reach a goal that will satisfy the client).
Goals of Assessment in Constructivist Counseling
• A goal of assessment is to form a sense of identity (Savickas (2011c)
Object-The client is active in the story, and for the counselor, is the object of the story
• Counselor is like an editor. Find out what is important from client’s story and what’s
not.
Cochran’s Narrative Career Counseling
• Cochran describes 7 “episodes” or phases in career counseling using a narrative point of
view
1. Elaborating a Career Problem
Clarify the client’s concern fill in gap of what is actually happening to client and his ideal
Ordinary conversation is primary way of elaborating
Vocational Card Sort –A group of 60 to 100 cards with the name of an occupation on one
side and information about the occupation on the other side.
Clients are asked to sort the cards in three groups:
Then client must divide the three piles in any way by placing the cards in groups that
have common reasons for acceptance or rejection. The counselor is attempting to
determine the values or constructs that are important.
2. Composing a Life History
Two basic intentions - (1) to gather information about client’s interests, values, abilities,
and motives; (2) to attend to the way clients select and organize their life stories.
Ask clients to describe important events in their lives and discuss their meaning.
Dramatization - counselor becomes the narrator and may refer to the client in third
person
Other techniques - success experiences, lifelines, career-o-gram, life chapters, and the
resume:
1. Success Experience- List of strengths-Activities that show a list of
accomplishments.
3. Eliciting a Future Narrative
Clients consider their strengths, interests, and values as they may appear in the future.
Focus is on evaluation of one’s strengths, interests, and values.
Use same techniques from previous stage, with an emphasis on future.
4. Reality Construction
Taking action in the world of work; three purposes to active exploration:
(1) Immerses client in the real world.
(2) Clients get information from a variety of sources and are able to evaluate the
(3) Can imagine themselves in an occupation.
5. Changing a Life Structure
Change in situation, oneself, or both.
Clients often expect to make a change in the way they work or who they work with.
6. Enacting a Role
Trying things out to make one’s desired goals possible.
Some start with a small role which may lead to larger ones.
7. Crystallizing a Decision
Occurs when a gap between a client’s career problem and the ideal or possible solutions
diminishes.
SAVICKAS’S CAREER CONSTRUCTION THEORY
View originates in psychological constructivism.
A social constructionist point of view.
The construction of one’s career changes throughout life and is constantly developing.
When individuals tell their career stories, they are producing a narrative.
Career construction theory is a meta-theory of vocational personality, developmental tasks,
dimensions of career adaptability, and life themes.
The Holland types can be used to generate possibilities to consider and to explore. They
are not used to predict the client’s future.
Developmental Tasks of Career Adaptability
Individuals must adapt to changes as they grow older, moving from school to jobs and
eventually toward retirement. Career adaptability is concerned with how individuals
construct and manage their careers. Stages
• Growth
• Exploration
Dimensions of Career Adaptability
• Concern Plan for their future and to become aware of the necessary preparation
for dealing with a concern.
Life Themes
Adlerian theory is an important aspect of career construction theory
Lifestyle Concept of lifestyle (sometimes referred to as style of life) helps to explain why
individuals make the career choices that they do.
Typically developed by the ages of four to six.
Five Major Life Tasks: Self-development, spiritual development, occupation, society, and
love
Work is a significant life task that often reflects social interest.
Career Counseling Using the Career Construction Model
Career Style Interview provides questions to ask clients that will help the counselor identify
the lifestyle of the individual.
Career Style Interview consists of questions about activities that include the following:
• Three role models:
Career Counseling Using Career Construction Theory
The following is an outline of the basic approach that is used in career counseling when
Savickas’s Career Construction Theory is applied
• Reviewing counseling goals
• Attending to verbs Verbs are action words.
• Examining headlines of the recollections Headlines compress the story.
• The Life Portrait
Uses the information that has come from the Career Style Interview.
The Portrait aims to highlight emotional realities and themes of the client. It will
try to answer questions such as “Who am I?” “What is my quest?” and “How can I
grow and flourish?
THE ROLE OF ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS
Inventories and assessments play a small role in constructivist career counseling since clients
see their own realities. Tests and inventories can be used for all individuals (but will not help in
understanding the perceptual world of the client).
Savickas uses instruments like the Self Directed Search or the Strong Interest Inventory to
assess vocational personality.
THE ROLE OF OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION
Cochran’s approach emphasizes reality construction, which includes interviewing workers,
doing volunteer work, and going to a work site.
APPLYING THE THEORIES TO WOMEN AND CULTURALLY DIVERSE POPULATIONS
• Culture and gender interact within the context of client actions; stories or histories exist
within a cultural context.
• How one views an action can have varying cultural interpretations.
COUNSELOR ISSUES
Counselors should be aware of their own perceptions of reality.
